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Saturday, January 18, 2014

30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 16

Day 16: Thoughts on Education

Yes. I suppose I should expand on that. Education is important, but a lot of it is what you make of it. I went to an academically crap school. It was a hybrid of a performing arts school and an inner city school with a lot of students that had given up because they were in group homes, etc... Please note that I said because they had given up. A few had kids, some had made bad choices or their parents had made bad choices which is why they were in a group home, but for what ever reason they decided that school wasn't important to them. Many would skip school and if they were at school there was a good chance they were high on something, etc.... Education is what you make of it. If at that age I had decided that there was no point then I probably would have dropped out or flunked out like many of them did. I had bad choices, two arrests and could have easily ended up just as screwed up as they were.

I decided that education was important and something to work for. It wasn't that they were too busy, I was in school just like they were, in the Performing Arts Program for Musical Theater and was regularly doing plays at the local community theater. Eighteen hour days were a regular thing and I still graduated with a fairly kick ass GPA. I made it work because it was a priority to me, if you want something bad enough you will make time for it, period, the end.

Why is it important? Education creates a better way to present yourself to the world. Using correct grammar, both in the written and spoken word, means you can more efficiently communicate and get your point across. This is a blog, I worry less about it here, but you better believe my resume and work correspondence is well written. I worked at a law firm for four years, you don't send out legal documents with out proof reading them 4 times. (If only I could spell) Being able to better represent yourself is how you get jobs, get promotions, etc... Everyone has to write something at some point, even mathematicians and sports figures need to be able to read and respond to messages and contracts. There are many dialects, types of slang and colloquialisms, but the ability to use proper English (American English anyway) will get you further than just about anything else.

Everything else you learn, that's to broaden your horizons and to help you figure out what to do with your life. Had I taken Astronomy sooner, my life would probably be very different right now. (Seriously, I LOVE ASTRONOMY) There may have been subjects that I didn't like or that I didn't click with, but I don't regret taking any of them. How else would I have known what I wanted to do? Also, was surprisingly good at computer crap. Not for me, but felt good knowing I could do it if I wanted. Education isn't just about learning, it's about discovering what you want to do with your life. That's why all those stupid subjects are important at school. Basic well rounded education helps you to be able to function in society and discover the dream job you never knew you had!